Purly Imaginative Subject by Gary J. Kornblith - 933 Words

An essay written by Gary J. Kornblith, the main focus is on a purely imaginative subject. The use of this counterfactual approach is widely accepted as a methodology in research of causation. According to Kornblith, counterfactual exercises are necessary to â€Å"think more clearly about causation and to distinguish between essential factors and coincidental developments†(79). He uses the counterfactual method to present the idea that if Henry Clay had been elected in 1844, which he goes on to prove as plausible, we would be in a much different country. The thesis as a whole is stated as â€Å"†¦ My focus is on a different pair of wars: the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and the American Civil War of 1861-1865†¦ Rather than project a different military outcome, I posit the absence of the Mexican-American War†¦The key to peace in my counterfactual scenario is a victory by Henry Clay over James K. Polk in the very close presidential election of 1844†¦ As a result Texas would almost certainly have remained an independent republic in 1845, and the United States would not have gone to war with Mexico the following year. Based as it is on a highly plausible turn of events, this counterfactual scenario promises to advance our understanding of the causes of the Civil War†(77). He then adds the fact that there are two viewpoints that come from this counterfactual exercise; Revisionists, who believe that the Civil War could have been avoided, despite the sectional differences, and